Two dimensional video content, such as obtained with a video camera having a single aperture, is often either projected onto a display screen for viewing or viewed on a display designed for presenting two dimensional content. Over time, the resolution of displays has tended to increase, from standard television interlaced content resolution (e.g., 480i), to high definition television content (e.g., 1080i), to 4K definition television content (4K UHD), and even to even higher definition television content (e.g., 8K UHD). Such increases in video resolution technology only provide for limited increases in the apparent image entertainment to the viewer. Accordingly, the viewer is only immersed in the video experience to a limited extent.
To increase the immersive experience of the viewer it is desirable to effectively convert two dimensional image content into three dimensional (3D) image content, including glasses-free and glasses-based three dimensional content, which is thereafter displayed on a suitable display for viewing three dimensional image content. The perception of three dimensional content may involve a third dimension of depth, which may be perceived in a form of binocular disparity by the human visual system. Since the left and the right eyes of the viewer are at different positions, each eye perceives a slightly different view of a field of view. The human brain may then reconstruct the depth information from these different views to perceive a three dimensional view. To emulate this phenomenon, a three dimensional display may display two or more slightly different images of each scene in a manner that presents each of the views to a different eye of the viewer. A variety of different display technologies may be used, such as for example, anaglyph three dimensional system, passive-polarized three dimensional display system, active-shutter three dimensional display system, autostereoscopic lenticular glasses-free 3D display system, autostereoscopic parallax-barrier glasses-free 3D display system, and head mounted stereoscopic display system.
As three dimensional display systems become more readily prevalent the desire for suitable three dimensional content to present on such displays increases. One way to generate three dimensional content is using three dimensional computer generated graphics. While such content is suitable for being displayed, the amount of desirable such three dimensional computer generated content is limited and typically used for animated content. Another way to generate there dimensional content is using three dimensional video camera systems. Likewise, while such video camera content is suitable for being displayed, the amount of desirable such three dimensional content is likewise limited. A preferable technique to generate three dimensional content is using the vast amounts of available two dimensional content and converting the two dimensional content into three dimensional content. While such conversion of two dimensional content (2D) to three dimensional content (3D) conversion is desirable, the techniques are conventionally complicated and labor intensive.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention may be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.